Cannes Lions: Is It Time For Clients To Step Up To 'La Plage'?

Michael Lee
, ContributorI write on creativity in marketing.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

I spent a very intriguing, educational, eye-opening, exhausting, and of course pleasant (it is the Cote d’Azur after all) few days at the Cannes Festival of Creativity last week.

This year, it was bigger than ever, some say too big. (I understand that the Advertising Festival is now bigger, and makes more money than the Film Festival.) And following the trends of the past few years saw record numbers of clients attending, many for the first time.

It appears that the festival of creativity is now a festive combo of Advertising, CES, SXSW and Ted Talks.

Promenade down the Croisette and you’d bump into the giants of the communications world: YouTube, Facebook, a double decker of a building for
Google on the beach that’s aptly named ‘Sandbox’ and a similarly sized
Microsoft show next door. The Ad networks were on their best behaviour, my favourite being the quite ingenious and crowded HAVAS Café. Slip into the Palais and you could catch Kanye West expounding on brand loyalty, or Courtney Love on music in a discussion with Grey’s Tor Myhren.

Right outside were a batch of New Technology companies pitching that new technology to clients and agencies featuring new ways to engage, entice, fascinate and track their consumers.

And all this led to a thought.

Should clients be investing in the same ways? Could they also create marquee spaces alongside all of the above?

And in fact, should they? I heard from more than one Ad Exec (none to be quoted obviously) who believed it was high time for clients to start contributing to the festival beyond the delegate fee. That they are the major benefactors of new fresh offerings, ideas and thoughts and it was time to be more than observers and benefactors of all this investment.

Alrighty then….

Certainly clients have the clout and confidence, likely the ambition, and indeed the right to do this. I suppose the big question is what would the content be from these major brands.

What would be their role be on “la Plage"?

Will
American Express, Nike, Coca Cola, Virgin, Ikea, Budweiser, AT&T, McDonalds, Unilever, (many of them Cannes Clients of the Year) be the next major contributor to the Cannes experience?

Could Coke contribute their knowledge on global community growth, (I’ve heard their CEO Muhtar Kent talk very eloquently and knowledgeably about the growth of cities around the world and the impact that is having on societies)?

Could Prudential Insurance be the catalyst for engaging conversations about generations to come?

Could Pfizer provide a backdrop for conversations on the growing health of us planet dwellers?